Table of Contents

Charm

Charming people and causing them to change their behaviour. Includes intimidation, guile, seduction, perform etc. See Social Skills.

At a basic level, if you want to persuade someone to do something, then it is your charisma x charm against their will. Difference between will and charisma is as follows:

Charisma is a measure of how 'nice' you appear to be, and how well you can relate to other people. It is a measure of empathy (Empathy might be a better name for the attribute, but I'm not going to change it at this point). High charisma is high empathy for other people (which may sometimes be a bad thing).

Will is strength of personality, and your willingness to do whatever you want regardless what the world says. A high will person will tend to be more stubborn.

NPC Reactions

First of all, a basic reaction chart for how NPCs react to people.

d20

Reaction

Description

-

Hatred++

You've really, really upset them and they will go out of their way to cause you trouble and suffering.

-

Hatred

They hate you, and will try to hinder you if at all possible.

1

Dislike

They actively dislike you, and will ignore you. If they can hinder you by not doing something, they will, but probably won't try to actively hinder you.

2-5

Cold

They're somewhat wary of you, and they will try to avoid helping, though most people will try not to see rude.

6-15

Neutral

A typical reaction, they don't care much about you but don't have any reason to dislike you

16-19

Warm

They quite like you, and will try to help were possible.

20

Friendly

They really take to you, and will be happy to continue the relationship, or go out of their way to help you.

-

Love

They either have a crush on you, or consider you a good friend. They will go to a lot of trouble to help you, even to the detriment of themselves.

-

Love++

They are besotted with you, and will lay down their lives for you.

Appearance modifies the result up a level or down a level. Further modifications can be made due to circumstances and the personality of the NPC. Note that most NPCs will take time to form an opinion. If you get a 'Hatred' result, then merely asking for the time of day will get you the time, and then as long as you move on, they won't have time to form more than an “he's a rude bastard” opinion, then forget about you.

Personality Ratings

How much someone wants to do something is measured on a scale from -5 to +5, where zero is no inclination either way. -5 represents a really strong desire not to do something, while +5 is almost a craving.

Rating

Description

-5

Exceptionally strong desire not to do something. Kill or maim yourself, or someone you like.

-4

Very strong desire not to do something. Kill or maim someone you don't know.

-3

Strong desire not to do something.

-2

Moderate desire not to do something.

-1

Slight preference not to do something.

+0

Don't care either way.

+1

Slight preference to do something rather than not do it. Probably won't do it if it requires much effort. Slightly thirsty and would like a drink, but not enough to actually get up and walk over to the drinks machine across the office.

+2

Moderate desire to do something, and will expend some effort to do it. Would put it off if it's easier to do later.

+3

Strong desire to do something, and will try and do it as soon as possible unless it requires a lot of effort. A really good book has come out for instance, and would spend half a day travelling to London just to get it.

+4

Very strong desire to do something.

+5

Fanatical desire to do something. Need that heroin right now.

Obviously, there are degrees of -5, and degrees of +5. You may prefer to kill a friend rather than yourself, but in either case they're both things that you really don't want to do. Though it may be useful to have a more fine grained scale (maybe -10 to +10), it starts getting fiddly and this part of the mechanics needs to be reasonably streamlined.

Persuading Someone

To persuade someone to do something, or of something, it is normally a charisma x charm roll versus their will x ego or will x guile. For example, persuade a guard to let you into a party when you don't have an invite:

charisma x (charm | guile) versus the guard's will x (ego | guile)

Assuming the guard doesn't really care either way (he gets paid whether he stops you or not), then he has a +0 attitude. You only need to shift him one category (normal success) to +1 for him to allow you through. If his boss is around, and he needs to spend effort in smuggling you in, then you need to get him to +2 (a good success).

Charm is used to be nice and act friendly, admitting that you don't have an invite, but could he let you in anyway. Guile is used to pretend that you did have an invite, and you lost it, or you're a guest of someone who does and you just popped out for some fresh air.

If the guard has some loyalty to his boss, then his initial attitude might be -1. If he cares, and has reason to suspect that letting in uninvited guests might be a “bad idea” (e.g. expecting assassins), then it might be -2 or even -3.

If you're not dressed the part, or otherwise don't look respectable, you may have -10 to your roll.